Darkness
Darkness is defined as a lack of illumination, an absence of visible light, or a surface that absorbs light, such as a black one.
Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low luminance because the hue-sensitive photoreceptor cells on the retina are inactive when light levels are insufficient, in the range of visual perception referred to as scotopic vision.
The emotional response to darkness has generated metaphorical usages of the term in many cultures, often used to describe an unhappy or foreboding feeling.
"Darkness" may also refer to night, which occurs when the Sun is more than 18° below the horizon.
Scientific
Perception
The perception of darkness differs from the mere absence of light due to the effects of after images on perception. In perceiving, the eye is active, and the part of the retina that is unstimulated produces a complementary afterimage.[1]
Physics
In terms of physics, an object is said to be dark when it absorbs
A dark area has limited light sources, making things hard to see. Exposure to alternating light and darkness (night and day) has caused several evolutionary adaptations to darkness. When a
One scientific measure of darkness is the
The material known as Vantablack is one of the darkest substances known, absorbing up to 99.965% of visible light (at 663 nm if the light is perpendicular to the material), and was developed by Surrey NanoSystems in the United Kingdom.[4][5] The name is a compound of the acronym VANTA (vertically aligned nanotube arrays) and the color black.[6]
Technical
The color of a
Cultural
Artistic
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Artists use darkness to emphasize and contrast the presence of light. Darkness can be used as a counterpoint to areas of lightness to create leading lines and voids. Such shapes draw the eye around areas of the painting. Shadows add depth and perspective to a painting. See chiaroscuro for a discussion of the uses of such contrasts in visual media.
Color
Literature
As a poetic term in the Western world, darkness is used to connote the presence of shadows, evil, and foreboding,[8] or in modern parlance, to connote that a story is grim, heavy, and/or depressing.[9]
Religion
The first creation narrative in Judaism and Christianity begins with darkness, into which is introduced the creation of light, and the separation of this light from the darkness (as distinct from the creation of the Sun and Moon on the fourth day of creation). Thus, although both light and darkness are included in the comprehensive works of God, darkness was considered "the second to last plague" (Exodus 10:21), and the location of "weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 8:12).
Erebus was a primordial deity in Greek mythology, representing the personification of darkness.
Philosophy
In Chinese philosophy, yin is the complementary feminine part of the taijitu and is represented by a dark lobe.
Poetry
The use of darkness as a
Language
In Old English there were three words that could mean darkness: heolstor, genip, and sceadu.[13] Heolstor also meant "hiding-place" and became holster. Genip meant "mist" and fell out of use like many strong verbs. It is however still used in the Dutch saying "in het geniep" which means secretly. Sceadu meant "shadow" and remained in use. The word dark eventually evolved from the word deorc.[14]
See also
References
- ISBN 9780805836547.]
Afterimages are the complementary hue of the adapting stimulus and trichromatic theory fails to account for this fact
[permanent dead link - Bibcode:2000APS..MAR.E2001M.
- ISBN 978-3-319-33855-2.
- ^ Coldewey, Devin (15 July 2014). "Vantablack: U.K. Firm Shows Off 'World's Darkest Material'". NBC News. Archived from the original on 19 July 2014. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
- ^ Guinness World Records: Darkest manmade substance, 19 October 2015
- ISBN 978-3-030-27103-9.
- ISBN 978-0-08-046818-1.
- ISBN 978-1-58049-812-8.
- ^ "Darkness". MacMillan Dictionary. Archived from the original on Dec 9, 2016. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
- MIT.
- Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems. The Second Nun's Tale.
- Alighieri, Dante; Francis, Henry (trans.). The Divine Comedy.
- ISBN 978-0-631-22636-9.
- ^ Harper, Douglass (November 2001). "Dark". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 2007-01-18.